Tackling Social Isolation Amongst Seniors

Through an Age Inclusive Co-sharing platform, Nurtur. Nurtur empowers seniors to engage more within their communities, by creating a co-sharing network, and utilising residents' accumulated knowledge and interests to boost intergenerational engagement.

Client:

Industry:

Community Living

Later Living & Care

How might we boost community engagement across generations and shift people's perceptions of them, from being vulnerable to visible and highly valued?

> 50% of seniors in Camden stay in one-person households and by 2020, 47% of London's working population will be above the age of 50.

Social isolation was becoming an increasingly important issue in the Camden community.

In collaboration with Camden Council, we aimed to tackle social isolation amongst seniors, in more sustainable ways. As part of a 6 months project, we spoke to a variety of age groups within Camden, deeply understood the challenges and motivations of various stakeholders, rapid prototyped, and created a hybrid service model to attain better integration in the community.

The Process

Outcome

  • Stakeholder insights and anlaysis

  • End to end service journey

  • Ecosystem Map

  • User Validations

Understanding the Problem

In London itself, 50% of seniors consider the TV to be their main form of company. Too many seniors are ‘cut-off’ from society, losing friendships and access to basic services, not only in London, but specifically in Camden.

We spoke to 100+ stakeholders from the Council, the Camden Older People’s Day Service, Nextdoor (a community app), seniors, youth and even visited the Age UK Camden retirement home for ethnographic research.

We found that the drastic transition towards isolation usually takes place at the point of retirement, where seniors experience a great loss of purpose.

To prevent seniors from feeling socially isolated and ensure a more sustainable ageing experience for them, we decided to start our intervention at an earlier stage, aiming to enhance their current social support network, "prescribing people to people".

Beyond ourselves, there are 4 layers of support, in which we identified 5 problems, as shown below. With seniors being perceived as vulnerable in society, their value is often neglected. But, while talking to them, we were stunned by the abundance of experience they have, over all their years of work and living life. There was a missed opportunity to reutilise senior’s accumulated knowledge and experiences to empower their social support network and enhance their sense of agency by boosting community engagement across generations.

Discovering Opportunities

Welcome to a world where people don’t know you by your age, but by who you are, your experiences, your passion and what makes you, you.

Nurtur

Click ton video to play

Nurtur’s Journey (in Summary)

  • 1. Creating Awareness

    First, we will use local seniors, like Roger, as our ambassadors to create awareness about their hidden value!

  • 2. Nurtur Pack

    Then, Margot, ex-lawyer, receives an email from her TRA (Tenancy Resident’s Association) about Nurtur. She also receives her Nurtur pack which includes a leaflet to inform her about Nurtur and it’s upcoming street fair. This is sent to all the residents of the community.

  • 3. Co-designing with Nurtur's Street Fair

    Next, Nurtur’s Street Fair is used to onboard all neighbourhood residents. Here, residents have the unique opportunity to co-design their community activities through the community map shown. They will be able to share their skills and interests and see where they’d like to co-learn from each other in their neighbourhood.

  • 4. Nurturing Engagements with the Nurtur App

    The Nurtur App helps residents easily explore their neighbourhoods and stay in touch with the right people. They can look for people with similar interests, or for advice from an expert when they need it for career pathways, etc, or start their own interest groups. Residents can either meet in person within their neighbourhood, such as cafes and stores.

We also want to make sure everyone has a chance to engage with their communities, so for Joe and those who find it comfortable or easier to connect from their homes, an online chatting and video conferencing system is also available.

Within the App, we have established a rewards system, where residents who receive help can send a badge to others to show appreciation. As residents collect badges, they can exchange them for local business vouchers, flower seeds or street fair tokens.

Inclusive connections

Value based Ecosystem

In Nurtur's ecosystem, local facilities and businesses will become the new meeting hubs. With increased brand exposure, local businesses will also provide more community-based events and discounts for Nurtur users as rewards. Our source of funding comes from Tesco and Co-op. As active members of the community, they have community grants such as Bags of Help that we can apply for. Large chains like Starbucks, who have allocated budgets for CSR, would also benefit from collaborating with Nurtur. Camden Council will monitor and support the whole system.

Design Principles

Nurtur's believes in being sustainable and provide a service experience that is community led and owned.

In the future, we would like it to run without much interjection, so as to provide a continued sense of purpose to its residents, especially seniors.

We believe that Nurtur will connect people and places for more collective growth in the long run, and build more resilient and independent communities in the "new normal" era, breaking traditional barriers.

Our first Zoom session!